Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a sheet conveying apparatus including a drawer portion that includes a pair of conveying rollers which convey a sheet and that is drawable from an apparatus body and an image forming apparatus including the sheet conveying apparatus.
Description of the Related Art
In an image forming apparatus according to the related art, a configuration including a drawer portion that can be drawn by a user so as to process a sheet in a conveying path is used to remove a sheet remaining in the conveying path when a jam occurs during conveyance of a sheet. However, when a sheet spanning the drawer portion and another portion is present at the time of occurrence of the jam and the drawer portion is drawn, there is a problem in that the sheet is torn and a part of the sheet remains in the conveying path and serves as conveyance resistance of the next sheet to cause a jam again. In particular, when a sheet spanning the drawer portion and a reverse conveying portion inverting front and rear sides of a sheet is present and the drawer portion is drawn, the spanning sheet may be torn to damage a fixing film or non-fixed toner may be scattered in the apparatus.
Therefore, since the sheet spans the drawer portion and another portion as described above, the following configurations have been proposed for the problem in that the sheet is torn in the related art. A configuration in which a sheet spanning a drawer portion and another portion is conveyed to a non-spanning position is disclosed in Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. H5-97305. A configuration in which a leading edge of a sheet does not move but only a trailing edge is conveyed and the sheet is pressed into a space in a conveying path is disclosed in Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. H11-227985.
However, when a jam occurs in a state in which a sheet spans a drawer portion and a reverse conveying portion and a source of the jam is located downstream in a conveying direction from the reverse conveying portion, the sheet spanning the drawer portion and the reverse conveying portion cannot retract downstream in the conveying direction. That is, when the sheet causing the jam downstream is conveyed to enable the spanning sheet to retract, there is a possibility that the sheet causing the jam will be torn at the time of moving into a rib, a flapper, or a roller. Accordingly, the spanning sheet cannot retract downstream in the conveying direction (to the reverse conveying portion side) in the drawer portion. In the configuration disclosed in Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. H11-227985, there is a space for receiving deflection of a sheet when the sheet is forcibly conveyed, but the reverse conveying portion has no space into which the forcibly conveyed sheet is pressed since a gap between guides is small. Accordingly, since there is a possibility that a crease will be generated in the sheet to cause an insufficient conveying torque or there is a possibility that the sheet will be damaged and broken by pressing the sheet, the sheet cannot be forcibly conveyed to retract from the drawer portion.